


Make a competition out of life

by ScriptaManent



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Brotherly Love, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Childhood Memories, Family Feels, Gen, They made me so soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27757372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScriptaManent/pseuds/ScriptaManent
Summary: The twins argued a lot, they even fought, but Atsumu had never expected Osamu to betray him.The story of two brothers about to take different paths in life.
Relationships: Miya Atsumu & Miya Osamu
Comments: 3
Kudos: 64





	Make a competition out of life

Atsumu should have seen it coming, really, but it did nothing to lighten the bitter taste that lingered on his tongue.

He hadn’t even bothered picking a fight with his twin, this time — it was pointless. That jerk had made up his mind years ago, if not a decade, but still, Atsumu had been stupid enough to think Osamu would always be standing right beside him.

He had been stupid enough to be lured into thinking they were identical, two parts of a set, sharing the same mind, but there had never been such a thing as perfectly identical twins. Ever.

Neither had been born with a volleyball in the palm of their hands. Just like everybody else, they had picked it up, they had played with it until it had shaped their palms, their fingertips, the way they thought. Or at least, it was what Atsumu had been convinced of, but even though both of them loved the sport with all their hearts, it had never been as important for Osamu as it was for Atsumu.

They had given it their all through the years, and Atsumu had always been chasing that tiny spark of talent that made his brother just slightly better than he was. Osamu had worked hard to get there; Atsumu had worked harder.

Thus, he couldn’t understand why Osamu would even want to give up on volleyball. He couldn’t stand thinking about it, not when they had achieved so much together.

He was even ready to admit that his twin was better than him if it meant he would remain by his side. But it wouldn’t be enough.

Osamu had decided to betray him, to stab him in the back without a second thought. There was no way Atsumu would ever forgive him.

And his state of mind remained the same as he slammed the door of their shared room shut and dropped onto his bed. Oh, Osamu had been asleep? Too bad.

Atsumu wouldn’t be able to sleep.

The other grunted an insult and Atsumu glared at the slats above him as if it could pierce a hole through the mattress and burn his brother.

This stupid jerk who was about to give up on volleyball — who was about to give up on him.

Atsumu closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. The bed creaked as Osamu stirred on his mattress.

Atsumu clenched his jaws and turned to his side. An irritated sigh escaped Osamu’s lips in the dark.

Atsumu pressed his fist to his lips to get a grip. It did nothing to get rid of the unfathomable gaze Osamu was sending him behind his eyelids. There was no escaping his brother, and yet, Osamu was slipping through his fingers and there was nothing Atsumu could do or say to make him stay.

Slowly, his thoughts drifted away, as they tend to do when it gets late and life is being a bitch to you. They took him back to the past, viciously throwing memories at his defenseless form, and Atsumu had no choice but to face them.

It started with a memory of them when they were five — one of Atsumu’s earliest memories; Osamu always bragged that he remembered more of their childhood than he did. The setter relived it as if he were standing in a corner of the room, like Scrooge being taken hostage by the spirit of the past.

They were helping out in the kitchen as their grandmother prepared a very fancy meal for the twins’ birthday. Two dark-haired boys kept dashing in and out of the room, sometimes pestering each other, sometimes watching in utter awe as the old woman sculpted food into works of art. They exchanged a look. Atsumu asked something, keeping their grandma’s attention on him as Osamu stole mochis from the counter top and hid them in his pockets.

The woman hadn’t finished answering that the two boys promptly left the room and joined the safety of their room. They remained silent for long seconds, staring at the door, expecting someone to come and scold them, but when nobody arrived, the twins burst out laughing, cheeks painted pink and eyes sparkling. Osamu took the treats out of his jacket and Atsumu cringed at the sticky inside of his pockets, making fun of his brother, but the other didn’t reply to the taunt. His eyes were on the light green mochi half-crushed between his fingers, and there was a genuine fascination on his features that Atsumu had never quite understood.

A blink, and Atsumu turned to his other side, pressing his face into his pillow. He was pretty sure his brother had cursed him, because as soon as he relaxed a bit, he was propelled into another memory of theirs.

This time they were in junior high, walking home from school after practise. Atsumu kept complaining about their teammates who couldn’t put his tosses to good use, and about Osamu who somehow didn’t seem to care that his brother had — finally — managed to steal his setter spot. Of course, Osamu wasn’t paying him any attention, or at least he was pretending not to, because Atsumu could pinpoint the exact moment his twin’s mind focused on something else.

He glanced at Osamu and followed his gaze to the onigiri shop down the road, the silence that had fallen upon them not enough for Osamu to notice the attention.

Atsumu was back in his bed before anything else happened but he could remember barging into the shop and buying two days worth of onigiris for his whole family. Osamu had called him greedy, and then a selfish walking stomach when he had refused to share his food with him on the way home, but Atsumu could remember in every detail the way his brother had looked at him in the shop. Full of surprise and gratefulness and love.

This stupid brother of his, of course Atsumu would have done anything to make him happy. They had always been together, he was just another part of him — another uglier and more stupid part of him, the gods had their favourites.

In all honesty, Atsumu couldn’t stand that Osamu wanted them to grow apart.

And yet... yet Osamu was his twin brother. They were born only minutes apart. There was nothing great Atsumu could do that Osamu wouldn’t fully support. He may complain, he may laugh at him, but deep down, Atsumu knew that whatever happened, Osamu would always have his back.

Maybe it was time for him to acknowledge that it was hypocritical of him not to return the favour.

He rolled on his back and stared at the slats above him some more. Osamu wasn’t sleeping, he could tell by his sheer breathing.

Atsumu bit his tongue and kicked the other’s bed from below, snickering when his brother swore.

“What’s wrong with you?!”

A short silence followed as Atsumu stared up again, all traces of mirth vanished from his face.

“What kind of food job d’ya want to do?” he asked, his own voice sounding foreign to him.

He heard Osamu freeze above him, and the mattress creaked again when he relaxed.

“I want to have my own onigiri shop.”

Another beat. Atsumu sighed.

“You better not poison me when you try new recipes.”

Osamu snorted, and immediately all the tension gathered in Atsumu’s body melted away.

“Who said you’d be the one to taste them?” Osamu taunted.

Atsumu reached up to kick the bed again.

“If you dare let someone else taste yer food first, I’m putting cockroaches in your rice.”

“Yer a jerk.”

A short laugh escaped Atsumu’s lips, full of pride and relief. 

_Life’s not a competition,_ the song went, but Atsumu was more than willing to make one out of it if it meant that Osamu and he would keep throwing things at each other. They’d grow together but apart, that was all.

In eighty— no, in a hundred and half years from then, they’d still be there for each other. They’d both work hard to get the happier life, and Atsumu was fine with it.

He’d show Osamu, on that day!

There was one thing that Atsumu was sure of, though. He could have the happier life, as long as volleyball and his twin were part of it.

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a self-indulgent character fic but I hope you liked it! I have a soft spot for siblings in fiction, especially twins, and it was about time I wrote about the Miyas.  
> Thank you Syirah and Vivi for pushing me to write this ♡
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AngstWeaver) | [Other Haikyuu fics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScriptaManent/works?fandom_id=758208)


End file.
